Photo by Jamie Sabau/NHLI via Getty Images

The Washington Capitals fell to the Columbus Blue Jackets 5-4 in a shootout on Saturday night at Nationwide Arena.  The Capitals record dropped to 28-8-2, and marks the first time the Capitals have lost back-to-back games this season.

The starting lines for the Washington Capitals

Offensive Lines:
Ovechkin-Backstrom-Oshie
Burakovsky-Kuznetsov-Williams
Chimera-Johansson-Wilson
Laich-Sill-Latta

Defensive Pairs:
Alzner-Niskanen
Orlov-Schmidt
Ness-Chorney

John Carlson missed his fourth straight game since sustaining a lower body injury against Montreal on December 26th. Brooks Orpik missed his 25th straight game since sustaining a lower body injury in Detroit on November 10th.  Jay Beagle missed his second straight game due to an injury to his hand he sustained in the game against the Buffalo Sabres on December 30th.  Beagle had surgery on his hand today and is “expected to return to full hockey activities in six weeks”.  Stanislav Galiev and Ryan Stanton were the healthy scratches. The goalie match-up for tonight’s game, provided by @CapsGoalies.

QUICK TAKES
In lieu of the injury to Jay Beagle, Coach Trotz moved Marcus Johansson to the 3rd-line center, and Andre Burakovsky to the second line left-wing.  Zach Sill remained at the fourth-line center, moving Michael Latta to fourth-line right-wing.  The first period saw four goals, two per side, in a furious start to this one.  Both of the Caps goals came on the power play.  Washington was out-shot 12-3 at even strength in the first period. Washington would ultimately out-shoot the Jackets 33-29 for the game.  The Capitals gave up a late 3rd period goal to allow the Jackets to tie the game, and send it to overtime.  The Jackets would win it in a shootout. This was the Capital first loss this season when leading after two periods. Matt Niskanen had a TOI of 32:04 tonight. NHL game stats can be found here:  NHL player stats for the game can be found here:

The Capitals would get called for the games’ first penalty when Dmitry Orlov was called for slashing at 1:24 of the opening frame, which led to a quick goal by Jack Johnson for the Blue Jackets at 1:32.

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The Capitals would go on the power play when the Blue Jackets Boone Jenner was called for tripping at 7:04.  T.J. Oshie would quickly tie the game on the Caps first shot on goal at 7:12.

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The Blue Jackets would strike-back quickly on a shot by Brandon Saad at 7:56.

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Jason Chimera would tie the game on a sweet feed from Evgeny Kuznetsov on the Capitals second power play of the game at 11:47. The Capitals had two goals on their first five shots.

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The first period would end with the game tied 2-2.  The Blue Jackets led in shots-on-goal 13-8, and led 12-3 at even strength.

A relatively tempered start to the middle frame. The Blue Jackets David Clarkson was called for high sticking at 2:36, but the Blue Jackets would appear to catch a break on a turnover by Alex Ovechkin, and a short-handed tally  by William Karlsson at 2:45 of the middle frame. However, a Washington coaches challenge showed the Jackets were off-sides and the goal was ultimately disallowed.  Washington was unable to capitalize on the man-advantage.  Marcus Johansson would give the Capitals a 3-2 lead on a nice feed from Tom Wilson at the 16:07 mark of the middle frame.

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The period would end with the Capitals leading 3-2.  The Blue Jackets led in shots-on-goal, 20-15.

Another furious offensive starts for both sides to start the final frame.  The Capitals T.J. Oshie was called for delay of game at 4:15 which quickly led to the Jackets tying goal by Jack Johansson at 4:47.

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However, holding true to this game, the Capitals would quickly regain the lead on a nice feed from Tom Wilson to Evgeny Kuznetsov for the go-ahead goal at 5:27.

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The Jackets would tie the game at 4-4 with 1:08 left in the game on a goal by Brandon Saad.

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OVERTIME
Matt Niskanen, Karl Alzner and Evgeny Kuznetsov started the 3-on-3 overtime period for the Capitals.  The Blue Jackets goalie Curtis McElhinney was injured a minute into the overtime period, and replaced by recent call-up Anton Forsberg.  The Blue Jackets were called for slashing at 2:04, giving the Capitals a 4-on-3.  Caps were unable to find the twine.  The Blue Jackets went on the power play for the final 29 seconds of overtime. Overtime would be scoreless.

SHOOTOUT
The Blue Jackets went first and were denied by Holtby.  T.J. Oshie would go first for the Caps and scored.

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The Blue Jackets next attempt would be good.  Evgeny Kuznetsov would go next for the Capitals and was denied.  The Blue Jackets next attempt was good.  Nicklas Backstrom would go next for the Capitals and was denied. Columbus won 5-4.